MGM workers seek to oust Culinary

      A group of employees at the MGM Grand wants the Culinary union out.
      Las Vegas lawyer Gregory Smith filed charges Thursday with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of the Organization of Non-Union Cast Members. Smith said the group is supported by 1,518 employees who signed petitions against being represented by Culinary Local 226.
      The action is being taken amid ongoing bargaining sessions between MGM and the union. Smith is asking the labor board to investigate charges that MGM and Culinary officials engaged in unfair labor practices -- the MGM by breaching its own rules and allowing nonemployee Culinary members to recruit on its premises; and the union by strong-arming support with threats and intimidation.
      His clients also want the 1996 card count that made MGM a union shop invalidated.
      "It was coerced recognition," Smith said of the card count. "That makes it invalid."
      Smith has submitted affidavits from a number of MGM workers who say they were harassed and tricked into signing the cards.
      "A lady ... told me that if I did not sign for the union that my wife who works at Caesars Palace will be fired," one affidavit reads. "That is why I signed."
      In another sworn statement, an MGM employee said that a union recruiter told people a vote would follow the card signings. A different employee reported being told that if MGM management discovered she was gay, she would be fired, and that the union was her only protection.
      "Other employees were threatened with deportation," Smith said. "Some were followed. People who wore nonunion buttons had them ripped from their clothes. It was all done with the idea of forcing people to sign the union cards."
      Smith said the MGM has refused to provide him with details of the card check, including the list of employees used in the card drive, how the check was made and the exact counts. Jack Leone, MGM vice president of communications, reserved comment for labor board investigators.
      "The entire process was conducted with strict adherence to the law," Leone said.
      Steve Wamser, resident officer for the labor board, said the charges are being investigated. Within the next 30 days, the board's inquiry will lead to one of two possible outcomes. If the charges are found to have no merit, Smith's clients will be given a chance to withdraw their complaints. If the board finds evidence that substantiates the charges, it will attempt to seek a settlement or schedule a hearing date for the case.
      Conflict among employees over the decision to unionize began almost immediately after the card check was held last fall.
      Jim Arnold, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary union, said he is confident any allegations will be proven false. Union organizers at the MGM say the same and are angry at the attack on their efforts to unite the resort's employees. Culinary represents a spectrum of jobs, including food servers, kitchen workers, housekeepers and porters.
      "I know that didn't happen," said Mirna Preciado, an MGM food server, of the alleged intimidation. "We don't work that way."
      Preciado, who is on the organizing committee, also said she doesn't believe that 1,518 employees of the MGM's 3,000 signed the petition against the union. All you have to do to gauge support for Culinary at the MGM is walk around the property, she said. The number of union buttons greatly exceeds the number of nonunion buttons.
      "Eighty percent of the employees are buttoned up," said David Peterson, who works in MGM room service and is on the Culinary organizing committee. "It's good to see that. I think their numbers are exaggerated."